On our recent family trip to Israel, we stayed at Dan Panorama hotels in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa and Eilat. We ended our trip with a stay at the Dan Panorama Eilat. Eilat is Israel’s southernmost city and a popular resort area with both domestic and international tourists. While the other Dan Panorama hotels were unmistakably city hotels, this one is a resort property, focusing on features like a sprawling pool area. Besides the pool, other positives are a pretty marina location and unexpected happy hour drinks and late night snacks. On the other hand, the hotel’s decor is a little dated, there were little kids running around everywhere and it’s a ten minute walk to the beach.

Dan Hotels

Dan Hotels is a chain of Israeli luxury hotels established in 1947. The chain owns and manages 18 hotels covering all of Israel’s most desirable locations. In fact, the most famous hotel in Jerusalem, the King David, is owned by Dan Hotels.

There are a few boutique hotels in the Dan portfolio, but for the most part there are Dan hotels and Dan Panorama hotels. The Dan hotels are the 5-star and 4-star luxury brand, while the Dan Panoramas are part of their more affordable, middle-tier brand.

Overall, there are some common themes I found with all the Dan Panoramas at which we stayed. Generally the hotels have nice rooms, great breakfast buffets, good facilities and fantastic locations. The bathroom showers, however, only have half-walls so water would spray everywhere and quite literally flood the bathrooms. In addition to flooding, they don’t have fans to combat humidity, so expect heavily fogged mirrors.

Location

The city of Eilat is located on the northern tip of the Red Sea, on what is known in Israel as the Gulf of Eilat and in Jordan as the Gulf of Aqaba. Located in the Negev Desert, the climate is hot and dry so spending time by water is a top priority. The combination of desert climate and waterfront location is what makes Eilat such a desirable resort area.

The hotel itself is located alongside a tranquil marina with tons of anchored sailboats. It’s also within walking distance of many bars, restaurants and beaches. Additionally, there’s a large outdoor square nearby with lots of local shops and theme park rides.

If you want to hit the beach, however, you’ll need to venture away from the hotel. The Dan Panorama Eilat isn’t located directly on the water but guests have access to the private beach and amenities of it’s sister property, the Dan Eilat hotel. It’s only a ten minute walk, but if being right on the beach is important, the more expensive Dan Eilat might be a better choice.

Lobby

This hotel was built back in 1996 and was most recently was renovated back in 2010. I mentioned that the hotel’s decor was somewhat dated but the lobby is one place where that’s not the case.

Checking-In

After arriving at the hotel, I found the front desk staff to be kind of aloof as we were checking in. Now my family had a total of four rooms so checking-in was not necessarily going to be seemless. However, that doesn’t excuse what felt like disinterest in greeting us warmly and getting us checked in efficiently. Instead of going room by room, the staff did it all at once and that ended up taking longer and was a pain for everyone.

Beyond the elevators, the hotel has a large lounge and seating area as well as a bar which serves alcohol, snacks and ice cream.

The Room

Since the elevators were so slow and our rooms were on the second floor, we used the stairs most of the time. As expected, the stairwells could use a fresh coat of paint and new carpeting. The tired decor continued in the hallway where better lighting, new paint and new carpeting would be an improvement. Finally, I really dislike the color of the wood doors and baseboards. This might be just personal preference, but I think the light color makes them look cheap.

I didn’t have any complaints about the room itself. It’s small but clean.

However, the best part of the room is actually outside. Every room has a balcony but those on the second floor, like mine, are much bigger. Besides fitting a table and chairs, you could easily invite several other people to hang out in comfort. The balcony also has great views of the marina and mountains.

The Bathroom

The bathroom is a decent size with the typical amount of counter space you’d expect. As with the other Dan Panorama hotels, there are no outlets in the bathroom. So if you need to use a hair dryer or other electronic device, you have to do it out in the room.

The bathroom and shower is another area where I think the hotel could benefit from updating. While I know they cleaned the shower, for example, you can see mildew in the grout.

Dining

The hotel restaurant is a large, open dining room where we ate breakfast each day. As with all the Dan Panoramas, a daily breakfast buffet was included in our room rate. It had literally hundreds of options sure to meet the demands of any guest.

It’s also where Shabbat dinner is served on Friday nights. The food was very good but the dinner experience was kind of crazy. It seemed like all the other tables were made up of families with small children. In addition, table manners and general restaurant etiquette were not important to most of these families. We also noticed lots of people taking an obnoxious amount of food, even for a buffet. Sadly this really made the atmosphere at dinner very chaotic and off putting.

For breakfast, there were chefs making made-to-order omelets and pancakes. The buffet selection included typical items like scrambled eggs but what made it special where all the middle eastern specialties like hummus, local fruits, vegetables and cheeses.

Miscellaneous

I loved the pool at this hotel. The pool itself is really big so when we wanted to swim, we didn’t have people all over us. It was also very easy to get lounge chairs no matter what time we got out there each day.

Alongside the pool is a restaurant and snack bar. It really felt like paradise lounging by the pool eating fresh pita and hummus and drinking an ice cold Goldstar.

As I mentioned in my opening paragraph, one nice surprise about the hotel was that on several occasions they setup free drinks or free snacks in the lobby. One afternoon they set out both juice and wine for happy hour. Another evening, after we got back from dinner, there were donuts setup in lobby for all the guests to enjoy.

Bottom Line

This is a middle-tier resort hotel that would make a good home base during your stay. If the pool and beach access aren’t important to you, there are certainly cheaper places available. Alternatively, if you want more luxury and direct beach access, the more expensive places would fit those needs. While the Dan Panorama Eilat’s decor could use a bit of a refresh, the pool area is fantastic and the breakfast buffet is outstanding. In addition, while you have to walk to the beach, it’s a really nice once and definitely worth the trip.

Trip Report Index

1. Introduction and Planning
2. The 7 Must Do Activities in Israel
3. Dan Panorama Tel Aviv
4. Dan Panorama Haifa
5. Eight Lesser Known Activities Worth Doing in Israel
6. Dan Panorama Jerusalem
7. Masada
8. My Dead Sea Experience and 6 Interesting Facts That May Surprise You
9. Dan Panorama Eilat
10. What and Where to Eat in Israel